Dev Nuggets

If dinosaurs had known The Meteorite was coming, they would have done something about it. We don’t have that excuse. AI has reshaped how I think, build, and work as an engineer. Not because it replaced anything I do, but because it forced me to decide what I refuse to give up: agency, intent, and engineering judgment . Recently, during an interview for a Senior .NET role, I was asked two questions that made me articulate that identity clearly. The answers weren’t interview answers — they were reflections of how I build systems and how I work with AI. I’m sharing them here because they capture the core of who I am as an engineer. 1. What’s a system you’ve built, and what architectural decisions shaped it? I’m the creator and sole developer of WORKS Commons , an AI‑native platform built on .NET 10, Blazor, EF Core, and LLM-driven signal processing. But the technology stack isn’t the point. The point is the principle behind it: AI contributes intelligence, but never intent. The system o...

If dinosaurs had known that a meteorite was going to be the trigger of their demise — they would have done something about it. Jose Marino, 2026 Recently, while applying for a Senior .NET position, I was asked two questions that forced me to think carefully about architecture, AI, and the way I work as an engineer. Rather than answering with generic interview talking points, I used the opportunity to describe WORKS Commons—the AI-native platform I have been building—and my philosophy for working with AI. I reproduce those answers here. Describe a system you’ve built or owned in production using your core stack—what key architectural or design decisions did you make, and why? I currently own and develop an AI-native platform called WORKS Commons (WC), built with .NET 10, Blazor, EF Core, and OpenAI integrations for signal processing. One of the primary architectural decisions was adopting the MVVM pattern. I wanted a clear separation between the UI and presentation/business logic so tha...